I’ve heard a lot about Jira not being optimized for QA as, at its core, it is specifically a Project Management solution, and, therefore, it is not about test management. But let’s be honest here, Jira feels unnecessarily complicated when you get started with it, regardless of your position or goals. And given it’s the … Continue reading Effective Jira Test Management →

This article is dedicated to writing kick-ass User Stories. I’ll focus on answering the following questions: What is a User Story and how can you write one? How to work with User Stories in Jira? What are story points and how are they used to estimate the complexity of a Story? How User Stories differ … Continue reading Write Kick-Ass User Stories →

Project planning is a critical aspect of ensuring the success of a project. Jira is a powerful tool that can help project managers and teams define their goals, identify risks and dependencies, and create comprehensive roadmaps to keep their projects on track. In this article, we'll explore how Jira's roadmaps functionality can be leveraged to … Continue reading How to Create Meaningful Plans in Jira? →

Goals typically come from ambition. We define them as the success criteria needed to achieve the desired outcome. But what if we wanted to put the ambition itself inside the Jira hierarchy levels in order to better track, organize, and respond to change while working in an agile manner on something grand or company-wide? Enter … Continue reading Explaining Themes & Initiatives in Jira →

Having your to-do list available every time a new issue in Jira is created is quite a boon in terms of saving time and keeping everyone on the same page. And while Jira does not have checklist functionality by default, you can use a 3rd party plugin to automate your Jira ticket workflow.  When should … Continue reading Here’s How You Can Automatically Add Checklists To Your Jira Workflow →

Disclaimer: The concept of a product roadmap is vast and quite nuanced. However, this article will be focused on working with a product roadmap in Jira. As such, I am coming from an assumption that you already have a roadmap and are ready to transition your vision into Atlassian’s Project Management software.  If this is … Continue reading Product Roadmap in Jira →

February 15, 2022 marked a significant milestone in Atlassian’s Server EOL (End Of Life) roadmap. This was not the final step. We still have two major milestones ahead of us: end of new app sales in Feb 2023, and end of support in Feb 2024. In simpler words, businesses still have enough time to migrate … Continue reading How to Migrate From Server to Cloud or Data Center →

It’s fun to go on a merry-go-round when you are five. But for a thirty-something project manager, the “joy” of merrily doing the same thing over and over again is more akin to flashbacks from  ‘em cheesy 90’s action flicks.  Think about starting a new development project, for example. You have some fresh ideas, an … Continue reading You’ll want to use more Projects as templates in Jira and here’s why… →

Even if we take the fact that Jira was never built with test management functionality in mind at face value, we are still left in a world where QA and dev teams need to be in the same loop.  Sometimes we simply need to play the hand we are dealt.  In the case of using … Continue reading Jira Test Management Tools →

While Jira is not the best tool for manual testing (it simply wasn’t built with QA in mind), it is - by far - the go-to choice for most software development projects.  Jira has gained its popularity thanks to its vast customization capabilities. In simpler words, there are ways to fine-tune it to meet the … Continue reading Best Practices For Manual Testing In Jira →